Toy



K. EDISON.

TOY. I APPLICATION FILED IAN- I7 1920.

Patented May 3, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

K. EDISON.-

TOY.

APPLICATION FILED IAN-17,1920- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

KARL EDISON, OF SPRING VALLEY, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOB TO HARRY E. BLOCK, OF SPRING VALLEY, NEW YORK.

TOY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 17, 1920. Serial No. 352,160.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, KARL EDISON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Spring Valley, in the county of Rockland and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toys, of which the following is a'specification.

The present invention relates to toy-s,

morespeciiically toys used for instructional purposes. The object of this invent on is to provide a toy whereby childrens stories appearing in picture books, cartoons or illustrations may be made more attractive to the child by presenting them on a movable band or strip displayed through an opening of a box hen the appearance of a theater,'or moving picture show. Thus while my device is primarily designed to serve as a toy it is useful for instructional purposes and may serve to replace picture books or stories appearing in book form.

Another object of this invention is to pro vide a construction which will be simple and durable and which can be conveniently operated by the child.

A further object of my invention is to construct the device so as to permit the picture bands to be readily and easily exchanged.

With these and other objects in view my invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which form part of this specification and in which similar reference characters. denote corresponding parts, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the toy; Fig. 2, an elevation thereof with the back removed; Fig. 3, a cross section on line 33 of Fig. 2; Fig. a, an enlarged rear view of a part of the device showing the picture feeding mechanism, and Fig. 5 is a cross section on line 55 of F ig. 1.

Referring to the drawing more in detail, 1 denotes a substantially rectangular box of cardboard or the like, the front wall 2 of which is cut and ornamented to represent the facade of a theater or moving picture show and is provided witha display opening 3. Mounted within the box near the side walls thereof are vertical drums or rollers a, 5 of which roller 4 is revolubly supported in sockets 8 fixed to the top and:

bottom of the box, The roller or drum 1 is hollow and mounted therein centrally and longitudinally is a spindle 6 the upper end of which projects outwardly and serves as one of the journals of said drum. The 0pposite journal of said drum is formed by a projection 7. A spring 9 wound around the spindle 6 and fixed with one end to the drum and with the other to the spindle tends to revolve the drum in a certain direction. The other roller 5 has its upper journal revolubly borne in a socket 8 which, like sockets 8 is fixed to the box and its opposite journal supported in a frame to be hereinafter fully described. Adjoining one of the rollers, as the roller 5, is a vertical guide roller 10, whose journals are revolubly supported in sockets 11. The ends of the rollers 1 5 are provided with flanges 4:, 5 which have opposite perforations 4: 5 Removably borne in these perforations of each drum or roller is a rod or pin 12 extending longitudinally over the surface of the latter, The band or strip 13 on which the pictures may be printed or pasted, or otherwise applied, is adapted to be removably fastened to the pins or rods 12 in any suitable manner, as for instance, by sticking the pins throughthe end edges of the band, or by coiling the end edges of the band and pass ing the pins through the coils or loops. With the band attached to them, the pins are secured in position on the drums so that on turning the latter the band will be caused to wind around the rollers. V

On the bottom of the case or box I provide a mechanism whereby thepicture strip may be manually fed so as to successively exhibit the pictures through the opening 3. This mechanism comprises a frame 14: in which is rotatively supported a spindle 15 on which are keyed a gear 16 and a ratchet wheel 17. The lower journal 5 of the roller or drum 5-is rotatively. borne in the bottom or base of said frame 14. Loosely or r0- tatively mounted on the lower portion of said journal is a sleeve 18 carrying a small gear 19 adapted to mesh with the gear 16.

Patented May 3, 19.21. Y

This sleeve 18 is formed with a toothed head i r 18' which is adapted to cooperate with a similarly toothed head 26 of a second sleeve 20 slidably mounted on said journal but incapable of turning on the latter. These two sleeves constitute a coupling. The sleeve 20 has an annular groove 20 adapted to be engaged bythe fork-shaped end 21 of a v lever 21, fulcrumed on a stationary part 22 of the frame, and which is actuated by a spring 23. This lever 21 is adapted to pro ject outwardly from the box through a vertical slot 1 so that the coupling can be manipulated by hand from the outside of the box. Cooperating with the ratchet 17 is a pawl 24 formed by a spring member suit-- ably fixed to an arm 25. This arm is rotatively mounted on the spindle l5 and is adapted to extend forwardly and outwardly through a horizontal slot 2 made in the front wall 2 of the box. The arm or lever 25 is actuated by a spring 26 tending to draw it into initial position.

The mode of operation is as follows:

After passing the strip behind the guide roller 10, the ends of the strip are fastened to the pinsor rods 12 and on pressing the lever 21 the coupling releases the rollers 4i and 5, permitting the roller 4: to turn under the action of its spring 9 to wind up the band. Now, on releasing the arm 21 and by actuating the arm 25 a step by step motion will be imparted to roller 5 whereby the band will be fed fromroller at onto roller 5 displaying successively one picture at a time through the opening 3.

It is obvious that the device may be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of my invention. 1 therefore do not wish to limit myself to the details of the construction describedand shown.

What 1 claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A toy consisting of a picture display box the front wall of which is formed to represent a theatrical show and has a display opening, flanged rollers mounted in said box, a picture band, means extending longitudinally of said rollers and removably borne in the flanges ofthe latter for the removable attachment of said band to said rollers, manually operated means for imparting a step by step motion to said rollers so as to successively display one picture at a time through said opening and means for automatically feeding the band back into its initial position.

2. A toy consisting of a box, having a display opening, two vertical flanged rolles mounted inside the box, a picture band, rods extending longitudinally of said rollers and removably borne in the flanges of the latter for the removable attachment of said band to said rollers, manually operated means for imparting a step by step motion to one of said rollers so as to feed the said band to display successively one picture at a time through said display opening, and spring actuated means for causing the rollers to automatically feed the band back into its initial position.

3. A picture display device for children, consisting of a box made to represent a theatrical show and having a display opening, rollers mounted inside the box, one of said rollers being spring actuated, members extending longitudinally of said rollers and removably mounted therein for the removable attachment of a picture band to the latter, means for guiding the band past the display opening, a mechanism for transmitting a step by step motion to the other roller, a manually actuated lever projecting outwardly from the box for operating said mechanism, a releasable connection between said mechanism and said roller and a manually operated lever projecting outwardly from said box and serving to operate said releasable connection, so as to cause the band to feed back into its initial position.

4. In a picture display box, the combination with a picture band of a mechanism for intermittently feeding said band, said mech anism comprising a roller vertically supported in said box and having oneof its journals extended, a manually operated ratchet mechanism operatively connected to said extended journal to transmit intermittent motion to said roller, a coupling on said journal and a lever arm operatively con nected to said coupling and projecting outwardly from said box for the manipulation of said coupling from the outside to release said roller from the ratchet mechanism.

5. In a picture display box, the combination with a picture band, of a mechanism for intermittently feeding said band, said mechanism comprising a roller vertically supported in said box and having one of its journals extended, a gear loosely carried by said journal, a second gear formed with a ratchet and meshing with said first gear, a spring actuated pawl cooperating with said ratchet and adapted to be manipulated from the outside of the box to transmit intermittent motion to said roller, a coupling on said xtended journal, said coupling being composed of two sleeves of which one is rotatively mounted on said journal and connected to said first named gear and the other is slidably but not rotatively mounted on said journal, said two sleeves being capable of engaging one another, and a spring actuated lever arm operatively connected with said second named sleeve and projecting outwardly from the casing for the manipulation of said coupling from the outside of the box so as to release the said roller from the motion transmitting mechanism.

6. In a picture display box, the combination with a picture band, of a pair of flanged rollers, a rod removably supported in the flanges of each roller to extend longitudinally over the outer face of the latter and serving to engage the end edges of said picture band so as to cause said picture band to Wind on or off said rollers when the latter are rotated.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

KARL EDISON.

WVitnesses:

MAX D. ORDMANN, JOSEPH T. MCMAHON. 

